Home-Human-Environment System and its Contribution to Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions Reduction

Abstract

Global warming by way of CO2 emissions is a complex system of societal values, technological means and environmental requirements. Conventionally, the ordinary citizen responds to global warming with the indirect method of societal response to problems by authorizing others to take care of “our” problem and supporting experts, scientists and community advocates to address it. This paper proposes to use the direct method, which focuses on individual response and endeavors to show that in certain cases action by many individuals in addition to the few experts will promote environmental solutions pro-actively and efficiently. This study provides details of the method and applies it in an effort to reverse an undeniable energy wasting feature of daily home routine: energy consumed because home occupants do not turn out lights in unoccupied rooms.A three stage study was performed. The first stage of the study used information from a preliminary survey to determine the sample size required to assess the energy wasted and CO2 emitted when occupants leave lights on in unoccupied rooms. The second stage used a guide of issues to discuss with each resident; the intend of this stage is to collect pertinent data and introduce the potential use of a motion detector in homes to reduce energy waste. During the last stage and over a twelve month period two additional contacts were made with subjects who gave the investigators their telephone number and permission to discuss their follow up action. A random sample of 100 subjects established that 64 percent of urban residents leave rooms but do not turn the lights off. This home routine wastes energy and unnecessarily increases CO2 emissions. The direct method employed brief and interactive telephone conversations with a representative of each household to convince 44 percent of the families that waste energy by not turning out lights in unoccupied rooms install one or more motion sensors that stop lighting unoccupied rooms and conserve energy. The study also estimated the energy wasted and the decarbonization levels potentially accomplished under several scenarios of implementation of the proposed device in Chicago, USA. Cognizant of uncertainty increases, this study used the Chicago database to estimate energy savings and decarbonization in Illinois and the USA.All estimates of energy savings and CO2 reduction are small but measurable and are likely to increase in the near future because population growth will continue and fossil fuel use will remain the main source of energy. Subjects of this study were cognizant of the minor impact of their effort, yet 44 percent of them implemented the recommended strategy for protecting the environment. The method motivates individuals by granting them knowledge that motivates them to act and emotional satisfaction for becoming active players in reducing unnecessary energy consumption and positively affecting global conditions.